Zvi: it's easier than it once was, but its still one of the hardest to acquire quested items in the game. Off the top of my head I cant think of anything that comes close in terms of overall difficulty.

Why is it easier? The clue is where 9/10 people posting here say where they got their beards from. When SE moved all those HNM drops to the KS99 series they did all Monks a huge favour. Firstly they made these previously rarely used avenues for BB items vastly more popular than they once were, and secondly they even slightly buffed up the droprate on BB items.

I think very few people realised at the time what a massive difference those changes were going to make (especially the droprate changes which were unannounced), but its certainly showing now.

As of last night (early this morning, actually), I can finally join the Black Belt club. I was able to claim Nidhogg, get the kill-shot, and tie my record Chi Blast damage. It was a very good night for me, it feels like I've been waiting forever to get that belt.

Thanks to everyone in Oceans LS on Phoenix that went to a late camp in DA after a late Proto-Omega run! You guys are the best. ^^

4 years later, i finally got my Black Belt. Got Egg on my 13th kill of Adamantoise. Bought Tongue for 500K off an RMT shell. Bought Beard this morning off an HNM shell for 3 mil. Only part of a social shell myself so it can be done without selling your soul. Just thought i'd share my achievement with the Monk Community. Once you get the first one, i found it's much easier to motivate yourself to get the last two. I didn't get the first one until a couple months ago and proceeded to get the rest inside 2 months. ^^

Bought beard from an LS where every BLM or BRD had all 3 items, even though their MNKs were level 20 or less.

I was not in an HNMLS at the time, just a Sky/Dynamis LS. This made the beard a VERY difficult item to get.

Cerberus, summer of 2005... Home of maury and FFXIapp in the early days. 2005 was the dirtiest year in FFXI history, with bots and MPK at an all time high, and GMs at their slowest/laziest. People would position hack right in front of a GM, and the GM would just go "Meh... it was probably just lag".

tongue: KS99 egg: adamantoise (bought, after trio camping for months, losing ToD, then camping a week or so alone/duo wanting to buy from HNMls when it HQd; ended up getting from same HNMls off ada) beard: nidhogg (bought, week of solo camping, usually staying up all night and negotiating prices with various HNMls leaders)

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feels good to have gone out and got it, after spending a lonnnnnnnnnnnng time (4 years) wanting and a fair amount of time complaining.

if you want BB, and are willing to track ToDs on your own, stay up all night a few nights a week when ToD is weird, and make enough gil to buy from nidhogg/aspi/KB dominating ls, you can get it. it's a game of patience and temporary gil-hoarding (just the former if you're rich).

i would have loved to get beard from KS99 and solo/duo/trio ada, but my HNMls went through a rough patch that somehow has excluded wyrm KS99 from our vocabulary (if i get a speed belt from the orb that's sat in my MH for the last couple months, it will be quite ironic), and endlessly losing claim to large groups at ada is pretty disheartening.

Destroyers were probably the one thing I got before I was ready for them, but knowing I planned on leveling MNK (It sat at 66 for about a year while I gathered gear for it), I went to the KS30s looking for Destroyers.

With KS99s I haven't been so lucky, but I am currently seeking an HNMLS that does kings. It's just hard on Kujata with Demo's stranglehold on kings. The other shells that camped kings are actually just moving servers now because Demo is so hard to beat.

I will find a way to get this Black Belt!

By the way, grats Pahn.

____________________________

Vanicant wrote:

So the Aerial Torpedoe's Self-Destruct isn't physical or magical damage, so what is it?

I just meant, it would leave it permanently at the top, so people could post there. Instead of having random people posting it in the accomplishment thread, then having someone link them to this thread, over and over again in various situations.

I was told by nearly everyone that black belt was out of my reach... Well 2 months of persistence and getting up at odd times have finally paid off!

Bought from first 2 items from HNM shells, but the 3rd is the exciting story. On Saturday, a group of friends agreed to help me claim/kill Adamantoise, as it was guaranteed to be NQ. No drop, but we had ToD. A couple volunteered to come help the next day, but I told them not to bother as it would possibly be HQ pop.

Well, two amazing things happened. I log on at 6:45am on a Sunday morning... And lo & behold, two of the friends were already there! Bit by bit, more of my friends started gathering to help out. I really do have a great group of friends!

Second, about an hour and a half into the window, the usual HNM people start gathering. One of the shell leaders sent me a tell asking if we had enough people to kill the HQ spawn. I truthfully told him no. He then offered that if I gave his shell the ToD... He would give me the egg! Naturally, I gave it to him. NQ Adamantoise popped, they claimed... And the egg really did drop! True to their word, they invited me and gave me the egg.

4-11-08 Wyrm Beard from ls ks99 (1/15 runs?) last month, over a year in time total Behemoth Tongue from King Behemoth, also D.Ring dropped, last Saturday (camping Behemoth on/off since I was 67ish) A. Egg last night, ls KS99, our first time ever & only egg drop of the night out of 7 runs Black Belt quest active since Feb 2007, level 75 0ct 25 2006, MNK first & only since 2004 Turning in my Brown Belt actually made me tear up a little.

(D.Ring wasn't mine, went to an LS PLD who then left a month later...)

When i first started the game about 2yrs ago. I wanted to be a black belt monk.

Then when my LS evolved into a HNMLS about 5 months ago, i started to camp HNMs on a regular basis. My first HNM was Nidhogg and I got the beard from him. Unfortunately, behemoth and adamantoise were less appealing and hardly ever camped by my LS.

So after a bunch of claims of the NQ gods i got fed up with waiting and just bought my tongue and egg from other HNM LSs. Having little money was not going to help my cause though. So i had to pass on a lot of tongues and eggs because other ppl just offered more money then i had (was whilling to spend.)

This morning I didn't have ToD on Adamantoise, so i got online at 9am. After about 5 hrs, the regular HNM LS came into the zone. After 7hrs camping, Aspidelocheone popped. I made a deal with the claiming LS and i got my last item.

4/18/2008 Black Belt obtained /joy.

beard: Nidhogg tongue: Behemoth egg: Aspidelocheone

In total, it cost me 1.35 mil gil and a SH+1. Add to that the countless of hours camping. I'm a happy galka now.

Having BB now is so cool. I'm getting tells from random ppl to congratulate me. Or ppl that i haven't spoken with in in months. Either because they check me (title) or because they heard it from someone else.

It's nice to see/hear that -even though I see more and more blackbelt monks nowadays- it's still considered to be a big accomplishment as a MNK to be wearing a black belt.

Over a year ago, I got a tongue from a shell I was helping with KS99s. Sometime after that, a friend of mine heard Adamantoise was up and unclaimed. 1/1 Tonight, with the help of that same friend and a few old sky pops from long ago, the beard was mine!

black belt 4th of June 2008 ^^ being monk 75 for a year, and joining a very lovely HNM ls, in less than a week, we claim all Kings, and hence all other members in ls have blackbelt, I get all drops ^.^